India Women’s ODI team captain Mithali Raj achieved a historic milestone on Sunday as she became the first female cricketer in history to claim 7,000 ODI runs. Before the start of the 4th ODI against South Africa Women in Lucknow, Mithali had 6,974 runs in her career. But after being asked to bat first by the Proteas, the India captain quickly scored 26 runs to reach the landmark in her 213th ODI.
Mithali missed out on her fifty after she was dismissed by Tumi Sekhukhune for 45 in 71 balls. She struck four fours in her innings.
India got off to a fine start in the match, with an opener despite Smriti Mandhana’s fall for 10, with Priya Puia scoring 32 runs, and Punam Raut getting a half century.
Mithali Raj on Friday also became the first India woman cricketer and only the second overall to score 10000 international runs.
Apart from her feat in the ODIs, Mithali also has scored 663 runs from 10 Tests with a highest of 214 at an average of 51. In T20Is, Mithali averages an impressive 37.52 having scored 2364 runs from 89 matches.
Mithali is second only to Charlotte Edwards in terms of the overall leading run-scorer in women’s international cricketer. Edwards, a former England cricketer, has scored 10207 runs from 309 matches with 67 half-centuries and 13 hundreds. Mithali, who has 75 fifties and eight centuries, is likely to overtake Edwards in the near future.
